Smart Warehouses or Smart Storage
At a time when the supply chain has taken on major importance, warehouse management has grown in significance, and its optimization inevitably involves, as in all areas of activity, incorporating 4.0 systems into its operations. In other words, ensuring optimal intralogistics performance requires the development of smart warehouses or smart storage, but what exactly does this mean?
What is a smart warehouse?
Smart warehouses are those that have their mechanical and repetitive tasks automated. In other words, they incorporate the latest technology in order to increase the efficiency of their processes.
Nowadays, any company that wants to stay in the market and remain competitive in a fast-changing environment must center its business strategy on digitalization. And across logistics centers as a whole, warehouse management in particular is one of the links in the supply chain where the greatest number of solutions, of the most varied types, can be implemented.
Big Data for smart warehouses
In this move toward 4.0 logistics, artificial intelligence, data science, and countless technologies applied to logistics all come into play. Many disciplines are used: machine learning, computer vision, predictive systems, robotization, and more. They can be applied to everything from desk-based tasks, such as document management, to loading products onto fleet vehicles.
As you might imagine, thanks to all these advances and their wide range of applications, digitalizing warehouse tasks increases efficiency and productivity ratios in the receiving, storage, and dispatch of items; in order picking; product movement; stock management; and inventory taking.
How does a smart warehouse work?
In a smart warehouse—think of highly robotized logistics centers—orders are received automatically, and the systems determine stock levels and whether all the requested items can be fulfilled. Robotic allies locate the goods and access them autonomously, whether in vertical warehouses or horizontal carousels.
Once the products have been gathered, they are packaged using multi-robot picking systems and made ready for transport to the fleet, via state-of-the-art conveyor belts, autonomous mobile robots, or automated guided vehicles (AMRs and AGVs), for example. This process can also involve tools for verifying the goods and the condition of the packaging, checking whether the product matches the order and whether it is in optimal condition for shipping.
And this is only the visible part, the one that catches our attention the most, because there are countless digitalized processes that we don’t see at first glance. Stock management is carried out using demand forecasting systems, machinery upkeep is handled through predictive maintenance, certain desk-based tasks are supported by RPA (Robotic Process Automation), day-to-day management is handled through warehouse management systems (WMS), and so on.
Benefits of smart warehouses
Knowing what smart warehouses are and how they work, it’s easy to see that their advantages are countless, with the main one being freeing up workers from repetitive tasks or those that may involve risks, so they can focus on higher-value work. Let’s look at a few more:
- Time optimization
- Improved workflows
- Resource optimization
- Fewer errors
- Elimination of inefficiencies
- Reduced in-warehouse traffic
- Higher service levels
- Better use of space
- Stock control and automated management of inbound and outbound goods
- Real-time monitoring
- Simplified decision-making
- Increased efficiency
- Increased productivity
- Cost reduction
The Amazon case: the automated logistics center
When talking about smart warehouses, we can’t overlook the great giant of distribution, Amazon. Its highly robotized centers attract attention wherever they are built, due to their enormous size and their use of the latest warehouse management technology.
In its task of distributing all the purchases we make through its platform, Amazon combines work performed by robots and automated processes with a Tetris-like layout, where there are barely any aisles, maximizing storage space. Under this business vision, it’s safe to say that the e-commerce giant has managed to secure its competitive edge through its firm commitment to technology.
The future: AI-powered warehouse management
The potential of smart warehouses is immense and extends across their entire operations. Nowadays, at a time when logistics has become vital to business success, any organization that wants to remain competitive must tackle the digitalization of its warehouses.
Optimizing restocking tasks, item control, inbound and outbound control, package preparation, intralogistics movements, and the automation of planning and document management are now essential if a company wants to boost service levels and increase customer satisfaction.
4.0 warehouses have gone from being the future to being the present, although there are many possibilities for implementation and scalability depending on the size of the industry and its needs.